Introduction
CRA is making efforts to continue to work with and assist Mazarron Council in enhancing the general facilities on Camposol, during the time in which the outstanding and longstanding issues on the urbanization are being dealt with by approaches to the regional and national governments, as well other influential bodies in Spain and potentially the European Union.
Rationale
The unsatisfactory situation on Camposol has existed for many years and in short has led to a stand-off between the local council and the residents of Camposol, with the former failing to fulfil undertakings promised at various times in the last decade, by different political parties, and the latter, generally not wishing to contribute additional funds, beyond IBI to the maintenance of the facilities on Camposol. Many hundreds of thousands of words have been written about how the situation on Camposol has arisen, whose fault it is and how things should have progressed in the past decade and more. This short document does not seek to repeat what has been said before but looks at what needs to happen while the efforts to deal with the longstanding issues are underway, as these are likely to take many months if not years before a satisfactory solution is found.
In the meantime, we are seeing a situation where the council appears to have all but abandoned Camposol as part of its municipality and therefore also jurisdiction and an area of responsibility for them to provide services. As was stated by the Councillor for Foreigners at the recent meeting with CRA representatives, Camposol as a whole was adopted for services /received by the council plenary in 2014. As such each sector is entitled to the same level of service as the others. The council adopted a budget for Camposol of €500,000 for each year of the current period from 2019 to 2023, a total of €2 million. At present, we have no idea how much of this year’s budget has been spent and on what projects. We were told that the Councillor had been forbidden from giving us any details of what projects have been completed, are in the pipeline and are planned for the future. In other words, the people of Camposol are not to be told what work is taking place here. We were told that the Council would issue a press release once all the work has been completed. It is somewhat of an irony that this is the first administration that has awarded a budget as well as designating a councillor specifically for Camposol, and yet the level of activity and communication is probably no better than previous administrations. It is recognised that the Councillor is a member of a political party and may not be allowed to pursue the improvements that are needed and which she had previously articulated.
By way of reminder, undertakings were made by the current Mayor in the lead up to his election and that of the Councillor for Camposol.
PSOE Undertakings 2019
By way of reminder, the following is a list of the undertakings given:
Undertaking – “If I am elected Mayor of Mazarron on May 26th, I formally pledge, among other things, to comply with the decision taken by the Regional Assembly last March, which was to create a Round Table formed by the City Council, the Regional Government, the CHS and the Camposol Residents Association, to work together to resolve the serious problems of Camposol”.
Action to date – Sent out invitations on 1st October 2019 to join a round table to the various parties, but none of them have responded. No follow up has ever been made.
Undertaking – We can confirm, prior to the forthcoming Electoral program, that the PSOE with Gaspar Miras Lorente as Mayor, will attend to the requests that for years the residents of Camposol have been making to the City Council.
Action to date – So far has been limited to minor maintenance works, no sight of plans for future works.
Undertaking – We will create a Municipal District Office on Camposol, which will deal with documents, registration to the Padron, rates and taxes, citizens information etc. etc.
Action to date – No information on progress. Presumably still looking for suitable premises, we think.
Undertaking – There will be a Local police patrol, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with permanent presence in the urbanization.
Action to date – Need to recruit additional officers, then they must be trained, training takes 18 months.
Undertaking – We’ll appoint a municipal cleaning and maintenance team for the streets, squares and garden areas of Camposol.
Action to date – Has not happened. The street cleaners have not been seen since just before the last election.
Undertaking – We will resolve the public street lighting problems that exist in many of the streets of the urbanization.
Action to date – Blame for inaction has been placed at the door of the residents. Apparently, there is a project proposal to deal with the situation, however we have been declined any details.
Undertaking – We will create a public library, exclusively for Camposol.
Action to date – This has never been mentioned again.
Undertaking – We will provide green areas, parks and gardens for the enjoyment of all, with play areas for children.
Action to date – This has never been mentioned again.
Undertaking – We will prepare a strategic PLAN for Camposol requesting that this be declared a Work of General Interest, in order to obtain financial subsidies from the Government of Spain and the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia.
Action to date – This has never been mentioned again.
Undertaking – In this multiannual Plan, we envisage budget allocations for the repair works and replacement of water and sewage network, including their systems of impulse and purification.
Action to date – This has never been mentioned again.
Undertaking – We will strive to resolve the problem of the whole urbanization, especially in Sector C-South where there are houses and whole streets in very alarming and dangerous state of collapse.
Action to date – This has never been mentioned again.
Undertaking – We will also compile a program of works with regards to laying of tarmac on public roads and pavements reconstruction or repairs as appropriate.
Action to date – This has not seen any action.
Undertaking – We will carry out a control for the prevention of ‘squatting’ in abandoned properties, according to legislation in force in this matter.
Action to date – This has not seen any action.
Undertaking – We will pursue the project for the channelling of the Rambla de Los Aznares, seeking National and Regional funding.
Action to date – Option 3 – not viable, Option 4 – not viable – Option 5 – not viable – The Mayor’s Option 6 – much awaited. Mayors option was number 5, we await notice of new option No 6
Undertaking – We will advise and help to solve the problems that many neighbours have administratively with their houses (without deeds of property, and/or under construction).
Action to date – This has never been mentioned again.
As can be seen, this administration has not made much progress on the undertakings. It was not forced to make these undertakings; one can only assume they were given in good faith with an understanding that the issues covered needed to be resolved. It is acknowledged that the Covid pandemic has placed undue burden on all authorities, and this has been given as the reason for lack of action. It does not explain why there was no planning between June 2019 and the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, or in other words 20% of the time that this administration will be in power, particularly in respect of the strategic plan.
At the same meeting, we were informed that the council would create a worktable for Camposol and would consist of representatives from the council, two representatives of CRA and two others from Camposol charities and interest groups. The councillor took responsibility for calling the first meeting of the workgroup and inviting additional participants. To date nothing has been heard about the first meeting and we have moved on by several weeks. We are hoping that a meeting will be called and that we can work with the council to achieve success in the objectives they set out, and which are listed above.
Conclusions
There have been undertakings given by various incoming political parties before and after local elections that promise to deal with the issues of Camposol. They have been fairly consistent in their content and also pretty consistent in that very little if anything has been achieved against the proposals in each session.
I have only concentrated on the undertakings given by the current Mayor and supported by the councillor for foreigners. The reason for this are twofold; firstly because the current administration does not see itself responsible for the failings of previous administrations, and secondly, because the undertakings given by the current Mayor are supposed to be happening in the period to 2023 and there may be opportunities to influence these and to assist the council in achieving its stated objectives.
Membership of CRA has been increasing since the call for new members and it seems an appropriate time to develop a plan to deal with the council, moving forwards. This may help to encourage greater resident participation in activities and increase even further the membership of CRA, if people see continued activities in place.
It is the correct time to reach out to those that may represent residents other than those from the UK, to encourage them to actively participate and therefore strengthen the position of CRA as a body representing the residents and also to perhaps remove the impression that this is an organisation run by the British for the British. Approximately 100 of the current CRA members are not British. This is a small number of non-British residents on Camposol.
It is perfectly feasible and reasonable to set objectives to work on activities in relation to the upkeep and maintenance of Camposol, moving forwards, alongside the campaign to have the wrongs of the past corrected.
We are weakened by lack of information in a number of areas, including knowledge of how many dwellings there are on Camposol, how many people are actually resident, given that of our 1204 members, 382 are non resident, circa 32%; how much the council collect in IBI payments and what the per capita donations are from the state treasury, based on registration on the padron. In other words, we have no idea how much is collected from and because of the residents of Camposol, given that by official figures, it represents about 10% of the population of Mazarron district. We also have no idea how much is being spent on the urbanisation by the local authority.
Participation in the proposed work table should be a key part of our activities and we should encourage the council to creating this as soon as practicable, when not only CRA but other interested parties will be represented.
Future Actions
Commence a programme of activities designed to engage with the local authority in respect of the undertakings given by the mayor at the time of and since his election.
Membership of the worktable proposed by the council should be adopted. To this end the council should be encouraged to announce the worktable and its first meeting.
Identify specific areas of concern to residents to take to the worktable. This relates to future activities and does not encroach on the other work taking place to right past wrongs.
Encourage more diversity of membership of CRA, especially in terms of nationalities.
Encourage involvement in the activities of the CRA committee, by other nationalities.
Endeavour to establish the exact number of households and residents on Camposol
Endeavour to establish how much funding is raised from and on behalf of the residents of Camposol through IBI and per capita donations from the state treasury.
Seek to establish details of the work that has been completed this year by the council and the work they say they have planned.
Encourage the council to undertake work that is a priority for the residents of Camposol.
Promote what CRA is doing, to the residents of Camposol and seek their support/views.